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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 DILI 000439 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS, IO 
USUN FOR RICHARD MCCURRY 
NSC FOR HOLLY MORROW 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  8/29/2016 
TAGS: CV PO TT KPKO UN PREL KDEM PHUM
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT GUSMAO CONCERNED ABOUT CAPE VERDE SRSG CANDIDATE 
 
REF: DILI 429 
 
DILI 00000439  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Grover Joseph Rees, Ambassador, U.S. Embassy 
Dili, Department of State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
(1) (S/NF) Summary:  President Xanana Gusmao told Ambassador 
Rees today that he is deeply concerned about reports that former 
Cape Verde President Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro might be 
appointed to head the new United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste 
(UNMIT).  Gusmao said it would take Monteiro or almost any other 
new Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) at 
least a year to understand the political situation in East 
Timor, and that this could seriously hinder efforts to ensure a 
level playing field for the 2007 elections and to improve the 
national police, the armed forces, and the justice system.  He 
expressed a strong preference for the reappointment of current 
SRSG Sukehiro Hasegawa, who he said understands these problems 
and knows that new approaches will be needed to solve them. 
Gusmao's chief of staff told Ambassador that the President is 
particularly concerned that Monteiro would see East Timor 
through the prism of the Community of Portuguese Speaking 
Nations (CPLP), many of whose leaders have close relationships 
with former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and his "Mozambique 
clique."  End Summary. 
 
(2) (S/NF)  Ambassador met with President Gusmao today to 
discuss a wide range of topics.  A full report on the 
President's observations on the current situation in East Timor 
will follow in Septel.  Much of the meeting was devoted to a 
discussion of UNMIT, and particularly on Gusmao's concern about 
reports that Mascarenhas Monteiro is about to be appointed to 
head the mission. 
 
(3) (S/NF) Gusmao said he has met Mascarenhas Monteiro but does 
not know him well enough to make a detailed assessment of his 
character or capabilities.  He predicted, however, that it would 
take Mascarenhas Monteiro or almost any other new SRSG at least 
a year to understand the political and social situation in East 
Timor.  This would result in an unfocused UN mission that would 
offer no serious resistance to efforts by the Fretilin party 
leadership, dominated by Alkatiri and the Mozambique group, to 
rig the national elections that must be held in early 2007. 
Gusmao told Ambassador that he had sent a letter to Secretary 
General Kofi Annan (see Reftel) urging that Hasegawa be 
reappointed to head the new mission and that he remain at least 
until after the elections. He said he believes Hasegawa has 
become acutely aware of past mistakes made by the international 
community including the UN, as well as by the Timorese 
themselves, and that he would insist that the elections be 
organized and conducted in such a way as to produce a free and 
fair outcome.  Gusmao said he believes Hasegawa also understands 
UN efforts to retrain the police, the armed forces, and the 
justice system must be directed in large part to ensuring that 
these institutions not be manipulated to perpetuate the power of 
any party or faction.  In the President's opinion, Hasegawa 
would be more likely than a new SRSG to insist that UN advisors 
promote "best practices" rather than assisting Timorese 
officials in using the machinery of the state to pursue narrow 
political objectives. 
 
(4) (S/NF) In the course of discussing his opposition to 
Mascarenhas Monteiro and support for Hasegawa, President Gusmao 
touched briefly on what he regards as the continuing support by 
the external Lusophone community, and particularly by the 
government of Portugal or at least important elements within it, 
for former Prime Minister Alkatiri and his political faction. 
(Please strictly protect.)  The President's chief of staff, Agio 
Pereira, elaborated on this aspect of Gusmao's concerns in a 
separate conversation with Ambassador that immediately followed 
the meeting with the President.  He said the President believed 
Mascarenhas Monteiro would almost certainly see East Timor from 
the perspective of the external Lusophone community and 
particularly of the CPLP.  According to Pereira, during the 
recent crisis elements in the CPLP and particularly the 
Government of Portugal put pressure on Gusmao not to seek 
Alkatiri's resignation.  He added that many Portuguese-speaking 
 
DILI 00000439  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
UN advisors in East Timor had participated in a concerted effort 
to support Alkatiri and to portray the President's actions as 
unconstitutional and imprudent. Pereira says the President fears 
that a mission headed by Mascarenhas Monteiro would be dominated 
by these elements, and that this would be counterproductive to 
the tasks of promoting genuinely participatory democracy and 
professional justice and police systems. (Please strictly 
protect.) 
 
(4) (S/NF) Pereira said he believes the continuing affection for 
Alkatiri and his faction within the external Lusophone community 
--- which is in sharp contrast to their extreme unpopularity in 
East Timor --- is due in part to Alkatiri's single-minded and 
inflexible efforts to impose the Portuguese language on an 
unwilling population and in part to effective lobbying by 
Minister of State Administration Ana Pessoa and other Alkatiri 
associates in Lisbon and other Lusophone capitals. 
 
(5) (S/NF) Comment:  President Gusmao's belief that Hasegawa 
would vigorously support fair elections and correct approaches 
to policing and the justice system is consistent with the 
assessment of most like-minded observers, including Embassy 
Dili.  It is nevertheless remarkable that the President and his 
chief of staff Pereira --- both of whom have longstanding ties 
to Portugal and who regard the Portuguese language and culture 
as an important part of Timor's heritage --- should express 
concern about the appointment of a leading Lusophone political 
figure to head the UN mission.  Unfortunately, they are right in 
believing that a big part of the next SRSG's job will be to 
dismantle the network of UN-provided advisors who, under the 
rubric of "Timorese ownership", assisted the Alkatiri 
government's efforts to misuse the police, the military, the 
justice system, and the electoral machinery.  End comment. 
 
WHITMAN 
REES